Cleland believes that the deal would create a company far too powerful for even Yahoo or Microsoft to compete with – let alone start-ups. He also explains why the deal is bad for consumers, content providers and advertisers.

If you need a comparison of how dominant Google would become, consider this…

To equal Google-DoubleClick’s level of market concentration in the intermediary online advertising market, one single financial services company would have to own:

The top 15 Wall Street banks/asset managers;

~60% of the hedge fund and private equity industries;

The New York and London Stock Exchanges;

The two leading providers of financial analytical tools: Bloomberg and Factset;

Two of the three national providers of credit profiles: Experian and Equifax; and

~60% of the Federal Reserve’s and U.S. Census Bureau’s raw market and consumer data.

Wow! It’s no wonder that Cleland believes “Google will soon displace Microsoft as the lead focus of the antitrust community going forward.”